Aileen Wuornos: Portrait Of A Monster

On June 1, 1990, another body was found 40 miles north of Tampa. After examining dental records, authorities concluded it was David Spears, a heavy-equipment operator. Another 30 miles south, a badly decomposed corpse was found in Pasco County, near I-75; it was later identified as that of Charles Carskaddon. In both cases, it was a .22 caliber that did the job.

On July 4, an abandoned 1988 Pontiac Sunbird was found in Orange Springs. It belonged to Peter Siems, a Christian missionary who had disappeared from his Jupiter home on June 7. Some windows had been smashed, and there were bloodstains, including a bloody fingerprint, inside the vehicle.

A month later, a family out on a picnic in the Ocala National Forest found the body of delivery man Troy Burress just off Highway 19; two shots from a .22 caliber had killed him. On September 12, Dick Humphreys, an employee of Florida's Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, was found dead in Marion County.

Finally, the body of Walter Gino Antonio was discovered on November 19, 1990, on a country road in Dixie County. Not only was he nude, but he had been shot four times with a .22 caliber pistol. He was the seventh and last victim of this killing spree.

a killer's trail

As the bodies piled up, it was obvious to Captain Steve Binegar, commander of the Marion County Sheriff's Criminal Investigation Division, that these murders were linked, and a multi-agency task force was put together. One thing that all the murders had in common, was that they occurred on the highway.

It appeared that all the victims had picked up a person who then killed and robbed them, and then made off with their car. Binegar reasoned that it would have to be someone non-threatening. The police turned to the press and told them that they were now looking for female suspects. By mid-December, many people had called in to report two women who had been seen fleeing from abandoned cars within the last few months.

closing in

Still, the fingerprint found in Peter Siems' car remained a mystery. Searches in the Automated Fingerprint Identification System failed to yield a result. Armed with patience, fingerprint expert Jenny Ahern began an in-depth search of all the records in Volusia County; and found a match.

The print belonged to Lori Grody, who had been arrested on a weapons charge in 1986. The information was sent to Washington and a search through the National Crime Information Center helped officers learn that Lori Grody was an alias for Aileen Wuornos.

On January 9, they located Wuornos, and the Volusia County Sheriff's Office made its move. The police arrested her without telling her what it was for; she assumed it was for an outstanding warrant for a past offense.

The next day, Tyria Moore was located in Pennsylvania, living with her sister. She told the police that she knew about Richard Mallory's murder — after all they had used his Cadillac for a while — but she told Aileen she never wanted to know anything about her crimes.

confession

Tired of playing games with the law enforcement officers, Wuornos made a formal confession on January 16, 1991. To start with, she said that Moore wasn't involved in the crimes in any way. Then, she was adamant about the fact that none of the murders were her fault.

According to her, all the victims had either threatened, assaulted, or tried to rape her, and she had killed them in self-defense. She claimed that she had been raped several times in the past and that she refused to take it anymore.

Since she had no chance of being acquitted, Wuornos' attorneys encouraged her to plea-bargain. She would plead guilty to six charges of murder, and accept six consecutive life terms in exchange. However, one prosecutor wanted the death penalty.